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RADIO WARS: Eight Thoughts on Jon Marks Returning to 97.5 the Fanatic
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One of the worst-kept secrets in Philadelphia sports media finally went official on Thursday afternoon, with Jon Marks returning to 97.5 the Fanatic almost 10 years after leaving for 94 WIP. He’ll host the midday show with Ray Dunne producing, titled Middays with Marks, which begins this coming Monday, September 29th.
Here are eight thoughts on the move:
1) The original plan was to pair Mike Missanelli and Marks, which I think was intriguing and made a lot of sense. You reunite the pair, fences mended after being P.M. drive competitors for a few years. Mike finishes out his contract and then heads off into retirement, Jon assumes the lead host role, and then you go from there. Instead, Beasley decided to cut Mike, which delayed Jon and left Dunne holding the bag for almost two full months. It made no sense at all outside of whatever ledger-adjusting Beasley was able to do.
2) One of the reasons Marks left WIP was because he wasn’t seeing enough of his kids. He’d be around in the mornings, but didn’t finish his shift until 6 p.m., which meant that you’re not home in time for afternoon activities, and if you’re trying to sit down as a family for dinner, that’s not happening until 7 p.m. or so.
I see some comments calling this a lie, saying that Jon was making it up, but if you listened to anything he said back then, middays was the shift he really wanted. If you’re walking your kid to the bus stop or dropping them off at pre-K around 8:30 or 8:45, you can get from Collegeville to Bala (much closer than 2400 Market) a little before 9:30. Then you’re on the air from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and back in time for dinner and softball and swimming and whatever else the kids are doing.
So I don’t agree with the accusation that Marks was making up the thing about his family, because working middays is fundamentally different than PM drive.
And even if there was some requirement that he’s there an hour before the show, say 9 a.m. (I don’t know, I’m just spitballing), you can still wake up with your kids and make breakfast and get them ready to a certain extent before getting in the car.
3) Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Beasley missed a big opportunity here by delaying Marks for more than a month. They cut Mikey Miss on August 8th, about three and a half weeks before the Eagles’ season opener. Then they held Jon’s arrival until September 29th, which means they went 35 days without a permanent midday host, starting the all-important fall ratings period with Dunne keeping the seat warm. That is malpractice, basically amateur hour to go into the Eagles season without your weekday lineup set.
4) No disrespect to Ray, who did an admirable job filling in. That’s gotta be tough, right? One day you’re producing Mikey Miss and Bill Colarulo. Then Colarulo leaves for PM drive and you’re producing Mike solo. Then Mike all of a sudden is laid off and now you’re sitting in the anchor chair. Fast forward two months and Marks is in place and you’re back in the producer chair, where you began. That all took place between June 3rd and September 25th, so less than four months.
I think an underrated story is how often the young guys at the Fanatic are left holding the bag. Andrew Salciunas had to sit in for Anthony Gargano when Cuz went to All City and that lawsuit took place. That went on for some time before Andrew was shifted to mornings with John Kincade. Connor Thomas filled in for Tyrone Johnson when Tyrone was let go. Now you’ve got Dunne covering for Mikey Miss. If you’re one of the 20-something kids at the Fanatic, you gotta be on your toes, because you never know when Beasley is gonna whack somebody and now you’re in the anchor chair and running the show.
5) When Bill Colarulo was introducing Marks on Thursday afternoon, he mentioned several times the “make the switch” slogan that Unfiltered is using, and connected his philosophy to Marks’.
That feels accurate. When Jon was at WIP, that afternoon show was much less hot takey than the other shows. They leaned more into classic Howard Stern philosophies, like having the Rat Pack-style recurring callers while smashing you over the head with Eagles talk until midnight green brain matter was splattered on the floor. But Marks’ show didn’t feel like Joe Giglio’s show, or Angelo Cataldi’s show, or the shows that Spike Eskin and Joe DeCamara are anchoring now. And if you’re old enough to remember Marks with Sean Brace or Marks with the Cuz or any of his other pre-WIP Fanatic shows, they weren’t hot take radio either.
I say all of that to suggest that there can be some brand continuity from middays through PM drive. Whether or not Jon fully embraces it, we shall see, but his show is spiritually closer to Unfiltered, and probably Kincade’s show as well, certainly more than what WIP is currently doing. I think the thing that made WIP afternoons really successful is that Marks had tremendous chemistry with Ike Reese and Jack Fritz, which made for easy listening, even when absolute morons like Mad Mike or Ingy were on the phone.
6) People talk about this idea of recycling hosts between the two stations, and it’s true that it seems like talent just goes back and forth. But I will say that I think the Fanatic’s best run was when they had that lineup of Marks and Brace, Bruno and Mayes, and Missanelli in PM drive. It was conversational and relaxed, but you still felt informed listening to guest hits from guys like Jayson Stark, and/or Brian Westbrook sitting in on a Football Friday. The Bruno/Missanelli crossover was some of the best radio ever before they unfortunately developed a seething hatred for one another.
So I don’t mind the recycling aspect if it brings us back to that mid-aughts era when the Fanatic was fun, and also fundamentally different than WIP. You’d go to WIP to get your Eagles and Phillies fix, and listen to the exclusive coach and player interviews and all of that. But if you wanted a little levity, that’s was 97.5 was for.
TL:DR – I think recycling is fine in this particular case.
7) Was leaving WIP the right decision? Dunno. That’s a tough gig to walk away from. But taking that kind of risk does require guts, considering that most sports talk radio hosts would croak in the chair before ever giving up PM drive. For that reason alone, I think you have to commend Jon at least a little bit. I don’t know if winding up back at the Fanatic was the ultimate goal, but at the end of the day you’re getting paid to talk about sports full time, and that’s a lot better than digging ditches or carnival barking.
8) Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas have made a huge run over the past year or so, and pushed their ratings to record highs. In terms of the Nielsen stuff, Jon has his work cut out for him.
Now, we play the song:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com